Microdot Camera

1960s, HVA

This tiny, easy to hide microdot camera could photograph documents and produce microdots less than a millimeter in diameter. A microdot is a photograph so small, an entire document can be reduced to the size of a punctuation mark in a newspaper. Originally developed as a parlor trick, microdots became essential tools of the spy craft trade. These tiny images could be embedded on an envelope or postcard, or hidden inside a ring or cufflinks. Reading them required special magnifying viewers. Often, these too were cleverly concealed in a cigarette or a fountain pen.